STAGE.

Scissors' new show lives on the edge

June 15, 2001|By Web Behrens. Special to the Tribune.

At most theater companies, if opening night were a mere two weeks away and the troupe had only just received a finished script, they would be verging on panic-stricken. But when you call yourselves Running With Scissors, it's just living a bit dangerously, according to your maxim: "rigorous artistic invention."

The absence of a full-fledged script doesn't mean they've not been working hard at their new show, "Breathing Underwater," which opens Wednesday at the Theater on the Lake as part of Puppetropolis Chicago. It's simply that they're doing what they do best, which is to push limits and stretch into new territory.

Conceived and created by the ensemble via a series of workshops and rehearsals that began in January, this is a completely collaborative effort. "It's definitely walking without a net, which is scary but extremely exhilarating," says company member Terry Hamilton, who plays one of the lead roles.

The fledgling company -- this is only its second show -- burst onto the scene a year ago, with a very different but no less challenging work, "The Man Who Fell in Love With the Moon."

An adaptation of a sprawling, revisionist Western novel, the ambitious effort drew the acclaim of audiences and critics alike. Unabashed experimentalists, the company pulled off the 3 1/2-hour debut by drawing on years of experience in many fields of performance (acting, singing, dance and movement) and visual arts (scenic design, costume design and mask work). No doubt those multidisciplinary qualities caught the attention of the people organizing Puppetropolis, who sought out Running With Scissors when planning this summer's celebration of puppetry.

Without source material to draw upon this time around, the Scissorfolk turned to themselves for inspiration. Taking their venue into account, they began with the idea of incorporating water, thematically as well as physically, into the piece. Bubbling to the surface came the story of two people: a young man, Neil, who heads to the shores of Lake Michigan to commit suicide; and an elderly woman, Miranda, a storyteller who uses her powers, along with the healing qualities of water, to persuade him to reconsider.

In developing their ideas, the company uncovered an intriguing piece of Chicago history, which they include in "Breathing Underwater." "We found out the actual Theater on the Lake building was once a sanatorium for children who had asthma and different afflictions of the lungs," explains Hamilton. "I think it's really interesting to take the actual environment, the atmosphere of the very place where the play happens, and bring it into the play."

This discovery led them deeper into the myth and symbolism of another primal life force: Now they were playing with air as well as water.

Fully steeped in the experience of the show, director Ann Boyd, final script now in hand, expresses herself elementally when she talks of their collaborative divination.

"It definitely feels like we're excavating something," she says. "At times, I've really had a sense that the story is in the air -- which is cool, because that's what one of the characters says to another: `The wind is full of stories, swirling around us, like autumn leaves. We only have to listen to hear them.' In a way, it's felt like that: We just had to listen to what it was telling us."

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"Breathing Underwater" plays at Theater on the Lake, Fullerton Avenue and Lake Shore Drive, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday--June 23 and 6:30 p.m. June 24. $10. For tickets call 312-742-7994. The work will be remounted Sept. 6-29 at Gallery 37.